Monday, March 14, 2011

Anonymous Supports Bradley Manning

By Jerry Smith Mar 14 2011
assangewatch.blogspot.com

While Julian Assange and WikiLeaks still haven't released their cache of secret documents, supposedly significant enough to "take down a bank or two", from the hard drive of a U.S. megabank executive, the internet group known as Anonymous has obtained documents they say will be released that pertain to the issue of whether Bank of America (BofA) has improperly foreclosed on homes and documents that expose "corruption and fraud" at BofA.

Anonymous has previously engaged in damaging denial of service attacks on major American corporations Pay Pal, Mastercard and Visa because they removed the ability for users to donate to Wikileaks via their services, and now they have set their sites on the families of the soldiers at the Quantico marine corps base to show their support for US soldier Bradley Manning.
Manning is being held at the Quantico marine corps base under horrible conditions and is accused of leaking the embarrassing diplomatic cables, the classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the 'Collateral Murder' video to WikiLeaks.

A Bank of America spokesman said the stolen documents contained non-foreclosure related clerical and administrative documents and that they were stolen by a former employee of Balboa Insurance, a subsidiary of Bank of America that provides mortgage and auto insurance to banks, and provides home insurance to consumers.

The spokesman also said:

"We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue."

According to the former Balboa Insurance employee who leaked the documents they contain personal emails, screen shots and statements from the former employee, who says he worked at the company for seven years.

It appears that much of the information that was posted online has been quickly removed, with many links leading to blank pages.

Angered because of the treatment Manning has been receiving, Anonymous has said that they are planning new computer attacks targeting government officials involved in Manning's case and will “harass” the staff at Quantico “to the point of frustration,” including a “complete communications shutdown” of its Internet and phone links.

Anonymous has said that they will post personal information about the staff at Quantico on the Internet, also known as “doxing”.

The group is calling the attack “Operation Bradical,” and demands the following:

“Manning must be given sheets, blankets, any religious texts he desires, adequate reading material, clothes, and a ball. One week. Otherwise, we continue to dox and ruin those responsible for keeeping him naked, without bedding, without any of the basic amenities that were provided even to captured Nazis in WWII.”

A member of Anonymous said that doxing will likely include tactics such as:

Barrett Brown is a freelance journalist that claims he is not personally involved in hacking computers, and stressed that he only advises Anonymous, participates in their internal strategy sessions and serves as their spokesperson. He said:

“It’s a guerrilla cyberwar, that’s what I call it.”

“It’s sort of an unconventional, asymmetrical act of warfare that we’ve involved in. And we didn’t necessarily start it. I mean, this fire has been burning.”

“Our people break laws, just like all people break laws. When we break laws, we do it in the service of civil disobedience. We do so ethically. We do it against targets that have asked for it.”

“Manning is an absolute hero. If this means me going to fucking prison, then that’s fine.”

When PayPal refused to do business with WikiLeaks and froze their accounts Anonymous sent them this:

“We politely ask you to finally stand up and show some backbone. Unfreeze the account, or release the funds, so Bradley Manning and his lawyers can access it. Otherwise you prove you are nothing but a puppet of a criminal government, which is violating the Geneva Convention and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We are Anonymous. We do not forgive. We do not forget.”

Anonymous has shutdown government websites in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, and last month they exposed a plot to try and bring down WikiLeaks when they attacked HBGary.

Anonymous compromised the servers the HBGary website is on, downloaded and posted online over 50,000 emails from the company and defaced the HBGary website by replacing it with an image explaining their reason.

Among the emails is a report titled 'The WikiLeaks Threat'. It was commissioned by the law firm Hunton And Williams on behalf of Bank of America and details an extensive plan for the internet security companies HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies to bring down WikiLeaks.

Anonymous also compromised HBGary CEO Aaron Barr's Twitter account and had it displaying his home address, his social security number, his phone number as well as several offensive messages. Here is a picture of Barr's hacked Twitter account: